New Skill - Surveying

[Raejinfury 3]

I am quite a new player, so apologies first if this has been suggested in some form before - but as a new player - it seems there are a lot of old tunnels within a lot of rock i have found, and even some in a place i thought had never been touched by anyone before - and even though sometimes you could work around them - some seem to be on different levels, and can completely destroy your plans.

So I thought it would be a good idea to have a surveying skill, either connected with prospecting or mining - and this skill could work exactly the same way as prospecting, surveying an area around the player, to check whether there are tunnels nearby, and greater skill will allow for greater distance, and more skill will allow you to know the height difference of any tunnel, and direction of the tunnel etc - all to allow you to early on bypass, or connect with any tunnels already there - You could obviously do this with a pickaxe, or maybe even a new tool? (not sure what sort of tool IRL would be able to do this anyway!)

This may not really be a needed skill for most and therefore not a great suggestion - but could be a useful one for some people - and with more tunnels all the time - maybe something that may be needed at some point.

[Jesara 12]

When you said surveying I was picturing something entirely different... not sure surveying would be appropriate for underground things (not saying it is a bad idea to be able to, at some high point of mining/prospecting, detect open spaces underground). 

 

But I pictured something more like taking the tripod to get a localized map like you can get from the deed marker (but with the addition of some elevation indicators) to help with preplanning construction.

[Orsus 38]

I understand what you are describing that you would want the new skill to do.

Surveying would use a Range Stick and the Dioptra, same tools used to create bridges.  Kind of surprised they do not use these tools more in the planning for any buildings, as it would make more sense to use survey equipment in planning a building than carpentry and masonry.

 

Use the small bell (or perhaps a larger version) as the tool for the skill, as you would most likely be using the sound of it as it transmits through stone in order to detect nearby passages.

 

This is a good idea though, especially on larger servers that have been tunnelled for many years.

[Damascus 374]

Put cave to medium and look trough cave walls helps also..inside only of course

[Snowtech 50]

Maybe the Mole Senses spell could be used for this?

Make it castable on a wall and let it show the distance and height difference to openings ahead.

 

Or it could be part of the analyse function.

Edited March 17, 2018 by Snowtech

[armyskin 930]

+1 to giving mole sense a purpose.

[Etherdrifter 2,518]

1 hour ago, armyskin said:

+1 to giving mole sense a purpose.